Hi all, I am selling my 4 albino Silurus glanis, which I have personally imported 5 months ago. They are about 20 cm long and eating very well. The only problem is that I am from Italy, but we can manage a shipping. Only serious inquiries, please. My e-mail is <removed - use site's PM facility> I can send you some pictures. Best regards, Stefano http://www.stefanobarone.net

[Mod edit: Remove e-mail address, as it only leads to spam, and there is a perfectly functional PM facility that will send an e-mail to the person --Mats]

Interests: African catfishes and oddballs, Madagascar cichlids; stoner doom and heavy rock; old school choppers and riding them, fantasy novels, travelling and diving in the tropics and all things nature.

If you are in Europe, chack it as well. In the Netherlands, S glanis is a native fish, but heavily threatened, and therefore they are protected, meaning it is illegal to keep S glanis - regardless of where they came from.

Interests: African catfishes and oddballs, Madagascar cichlids; stoner doom and heavy rock; old school choppers and riding them, fantasy novels, travelling and diving in the tropics and all things nature.

If you are in Europe, chack it as well. In the Netherlands, S glanis is a native fish, but heavily threatened, and therefore they are protected, meaning it is illegal to keep S glanis - regardless of where they came from.

yes
and
no

without being hampered by any knowledge whatsoever the paper-shuffeling morons at the desks made up the following clumsy construction:
yes it is illegal to keep the natural Silurus glanis wildform variety, even if they're captive bred.

but it's NOT illegal to keep or sell captive bred Silurus glanis if those are an artificial variety.........

this ends up with all kinds of godawful ugly albino or orange 'gold form' catfish being 'released' from ponds once they've outgrown those, after eating all the goldfish, the local ducks visiting it and the unsuspecting housecat that tried to fish out a goldie.

as a result; the albino Silurus glanis is all over the place since a few months and massive numbers of them will be for sale once the pond hobby season starts (in about a month!)

expect albino Wels to be quite abundant a few years from now in every canal or lake.

All right, it took some time but I got to the bottom of this, I suppose. I spoke with the Dept of Enviromental Conservation officer in charge, and he informed me that there are only 4 fishes (one is a family - the infamous Syracuse NY case of Rocky the snakehead, see web if interested) illegal in NY state listed in an official excerpt below (from paragraph 180.9). Keep in mind we are speaking of in-house, private aquariums (ponds have additional regulations, say a grass carp, aka white amur, is the most heavily regulated fish in NY state - last year, I had to get a licence for one just to get it for my 10,000 gal backyard pond and I had to claim I need him for algae control, which is somewhat true, otherwise, they would deny my application - cannot have him for esthetics; it is also critical whether the pond has connections, ins or outs, to other watersheds, state waters, rivers, brooks, etc., so fish could potentially escape on its own).

(b) Prohibitions.
(1) Except as provided in subdivisions c and d of this section, no person shall buy, sell or offer for sale, possess, transport, import or export, or cause to be transported, imported or exported live individuals or viable eggs of the following species of fish, which the Department of Environmental Conservation (department) has determined present a danger to indigenous fish populations:
(i) Silver carp (Hypophthalmicthys molitrix)
(ii) Bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis)
(iii) Black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus)
(iv) Snakehead fish of the genera Channa and Parachanna (or the generic synonyms of Bostrychoides, Opicephalus, Ophiocephalus, and Parophiocephalus) of the Family Channidae (VJ: long list of about 40 fish ensues...)

well, of course!! I would not torture a 10' wels in a 25' x 6' x 3' indoor pond, but he could be happy there until he reaches say 4'-5', right? Then will be the time for the next step, quite a few years from now, hopefully (in the scenario that I will get him smaller or small initially).